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nd Symbolism

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n Open Linguistics 3(1) · January 2017 with 107 Reads 
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niversität Augsburg

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sound symbolism and the ways to interpret sound symbolic phenomena. Sound symbolism appears to be a universal harder for women to read
uists tend to neglect it or offer heterogeneous approaches and definitions. This paper is concerned with the role of
ed in cases like cuckoo, and the question whether some sound symbolic effects might be the result of acquired
about the language system. The author argues that several aspects of sound symbolism such as natural/iconic or
between sound and (facets of) referents interact but should be considered separately to gain a more realistic insight
und symbolism.

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xample rating Galdalyn 1.56

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Open Linguistics 2017; 3: 491–499

h Article
sen*

Two Meanings of Sound Symbolism

 See all › See all › See all ›
org/10.1515/opli-2017-0024 Download citation Share Download full-text PDF
4 Citations 68 References 1 Figures
arch 29, 2017; accepted September 24, 2017

This article deals with sound symbolism and the ways to interpret sound symbolic phenomena.
mbolism appears to be a universal phenomenon but linguists tend to neglect it or offer heterogeneous
es and definitions. This paper is concerned with the role of motivation, as assumed in cases like
nd the question whether some sound symbolic effects might be the result of acquired statistical
e about the language system. The author argues that several aspects of sound symbolism such
/iconic or habitual relationships between sound and (facets of) referents interact but should be
d separately to gain a more realistic insight into the working of sound symbolism.

s: Iconicity, definitions, size-sound symbolism, names, language universals, phonestheme

oduction
on sound symbolism was never really popular, perhaps due to the dominance of Western
and US-American research and Ferdinand de Saussure’s conclusion that the relation between
meaning of the linguistic sign was arbitrary - except for a few onomatopoetic terms. Still, from
me, authors would offer experiments and new ideas on sound symbolism, including some of the
d ones such as Sapir (1929), Köhler (1929), Jespersen (1933), Jakobson (1971), French (1976), Ultan
nton/Nichols/Ohala (1994) and Nuckolls (1999), to name just a few. Likewise, French and German
ns contributed interesting insights, such as Uznadze (1924), Müller (1935), Wissemann (1954),
(1958ff.), Fónagy (1963), Peterfalvi (1964ff.), Ertel (1969) or Etzel (1983). Recently, the number of
nd experiments dealing with sound symbolism and its cross-linguistic implications is growing.
Non-Indo-Germanic languages reveal much more sound symbolic lexemes than Indo-Germanic,
ue (Ibarretxe-Antuñano 2006), Turkish (Jendraschek 2002), Tamil (Yoshida 2012) or Japanese and
aylor 1966; Kim 1977; Ivanova 2006; Parault & Parkinson 2008; Akita 2011, 2013; Kantartzis et
African languages and many others use a lot of ideophones, “marked words that depict sensory
(Dingemanse 2012: 655 and cf. Dingemanse 2011; Childs 1994, 2015; Voeltz & Kilian-Hatz 2001;
nse et al. 2016). Japanese dictionaries list around 4.500 sound symbolic words (Imai & Kita 2014;
ka 2001). For an overview cf. Volke (2007), Elsen (2016).
now, a generally accepted definition of sound symbolism is missing. On the one hand, authors
a natural relationship, cf. “the term ‘sound symbolism’, designating an inmost, natural similarity
n between sound and meaning” (Jakobson & Waugh 1987: 182). On the other hand, we find
zations such as “the sound of the spoken word-forms is felt to be appropriate to the meaning of the
f which they are forms, though the words do not actually denote sounds or the source of sounds,
the phenomenon known as sound-symbolism“ (Lyons 1977: 104) or “[h]abitual association of a
phoneme, or a category of phonemes, with a concept such as largeness or smallness, proximity
e, beauty or ugliness, curved or angular shapes, and the like“ (Anderson 1998: 340). Whereas a

ding author: Hilke Elsen, Augsburg University, Augsburg, Germany, E-mail: Hilke.Elsen@philhist.uni-augsburg.de

ss. ©  Hilke Elsen, published by De Gruyter Open. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-
ial-NoDerivs . License. Unauthenticated
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492 H. Elsen

See all › See all › See all ›
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4 natural
Citations relationship is, among
68 References others, based on similarity or iconicity,
1 Figures cf. smash!,
associations can be acquired over time without being natural.
The most popular definition though is by Hinton et al. (1994: 1). The authors list several typ
sound symbolism according to more or less intensity of relationship: With the help of corporeal
symbolism speakers express emotional or physical states, e.g. sneezing, ouch!. Imitative sound symb
concerns words mimicking sounds, such as bang! or bow-wow!. Synesthetic sound symbolism exp
non-acoustic information by speech sounds. Synesthesia deals with crossmodal associations
term refers to the neurobiological condition of experiencing a combination of two different sense
hearing colours or tasting sounds (cf. Simner/Hubbard 2013). In Hinton et al.’s terminology synes
sound symbolism refers to movements or tactile properties represented by speech, e.g. snap!. Fi
conventional sound symbolism deals with frequent pairings of phonemes and aspects of meaning
gl- in glimmer, glisten, glitter, glint, often called phonesthemes. The first three types show more o
natural, iconic connections; the fourth one, though, might solely be based on a frequently occurrin
Sound symbolism is based on a natural association and, alternatively or additionally, a habitual on
For the time being we will work with a broad as well as practicable definition:

The term sound symbolism is used when a sound unit such as a phoneme, syllable, feature, or tone is said
beyond its linguistic function as a contrastive, nonmeaning-bearing unit, to directly express some kind of me
(Nuckolls 199

The question is whether sound symbolism should be defined on the basis of motivation alone.

2 Some sound symbolic phenomena

One of the most frequent correlations is that between high front vowels and smallness and a/o-so
and large size. In Sapir’s (1929) famous study, subjects were offered 60 pairs of artificial words su
mil/mal. They were told that these were foreign names for referents, e.g. a table. Participants of the
had to decide whether they referred to a small or a large one. Results were unanimous as the vast ma
paired large objects with words containing /a/ (up to 96 %) and small objects with words conta
/i/ (Sapir 1929: 225-239). Subsequently, similar experiments followed. In a recent study by Shin
& Kawahara (2010) subjects with English, Chinese, Japanese and Korean as mother tongue took
Stimuli consisted of doubled VC-syllables with /b, d, g, z – p, t, k, s/ and /i, u, e, o, a/. High and
vowels and voiceless consonants correlated positively with small size. In another study, Thomp
Estes (2011: 2392-2404) formed systematically varied artificial words with “large” and “small” so
letters according to published results, such as /a, u, o, m, l, w, b, d, g/ (large) and /i, e, t, k/ (small).
words consisted of CV-syllables with no, two, four or six “large” sound/letters and six, four, two
“small” ones such as wodolo (exclusively “large” sounds) or tibudo (four “large” sounds, two “s
sounds). Referents were fantasy characters of different sizes. Subjects had to choose the best fitting
for a given character with the result that the larger the size of the referent, the higher was the num
“large” sounds in the word. These and several more experiments show size-symbolism for artificial w
Analyses of actual vocabulary yield less robust results, for descriptive as well as experimental studie
experiments with real words cf. Dingemanse et al. 2016: 117-133). However, when comparing data
actual lexicon and artificial words, one gets interesting results: Slavic languages very often use lex
with /a/ for small things, but in experiments with artificial words Russian and Ukrainian speakers
/a/ to be ‘big’ and /i/ to be ‘small’ (Levickij 2013: 87). The same was found for Korean speaking su
(Shinohara & Kawahara 2010). Sound symbolism exists, but it may be latent without being active a
time. It may be activated when a speaker feels entitled to express emotions like lengthening a sou
emphasize meaning (e.g., Feist 2013: 110) or when further information is lacking, e.g., when interp
unknown or artificial words.
As Feist (2013: 107) already pointed out, articulation seems to be a crucial factor but not the onl
/i/ may be associated with small size because of the small opening of the mouth during articulation

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The Two Meanings of Sound Symbolism 493

d to high tongue position and a smaller mouth cavity, whereas /a/ is connected to low tongue
nd larger mouth cavity. Listeners as well as speakers may find a natural relationship between
requencies of /i/ and smallness. This relation is acoustic, articulatory as well as kinaesthetic.
ore, we are used to hear high and light sounds in combination with small animals and persons.
ects make high frequency sounds, large ones low frequency sounds. In his “frequency code”,
94) suggests biological backgrounds for some sound symbolic phenomena. One reason for the
to associate /i/ and /e/ with ‘small’ and therefore ‘harmless’ and therefore ‘good’ as opposed to
els might be found in sexual and age related dimorphism of the vocal anatomy (cf. Ohala 1994),
made by a confident aggressor [...] are typically rough and have a low F0” (Ohala 1994: 329)
onnected with larger apparent size to give a dangerous impression. Back vowels and fricatives
threatening growls, roars and snarls and will be more suitable to name dangerous and evil
This is another common sound symbolic correlation.
ndike (1945a, b) assumed that /k, g, x, kr/ or /gr/ sound unpleasant because we associate them
ning, grunting and growling. Fónagy (1963: 70) interpreted /r/, velar and laryngal plosives such
/ and // as hard sounds as we need more effort for their production compared to /m/ or /l/.
g to Fónagy, the glottal stop is especially aggressive and related to vomiting and indisposition.
sell (1999) characterized /g/ and (the English) /r/ as aggressive consonants. “Sounds that are
towards the back of the throat (including /k/ and /g/) share some of the muscular responses
istic of the negative and active emotions of disgust and anger. […] The production of phonemes
with preprogrammed emotional responses in several ways. Phonemes that simulate the
reactions typical of an emotion may engender a perception of that emotion, and emotional
that control breathing patterns and facial muscles may make it easier to produce some sounds
difficult to produce others” (Whissell 1999: 43f.). In several experiments she showed that
lasses) of phonemes are related to emotions. E.g., velars correlated with aggression and anger,
he lateral was found to be pleasant and gentle (Whissell 1999, 2000). The threatening effect of
d uvulars is based on acoustic similarities. They resemble roars of dangerous animals, so that
ate aggression and menace because of our experiences. They sound harsh and hard because
more energy for articulation. In contrast, nasals, laterals, glides, voiced consonants in general,
pen syllables and the avoidance of consonant clusters are pleasant-sounding (Crystal 1995;
1998). These relationships are motivated as they seem to have a natural base which might be
arly in life, but they are independent of the language system.

ficial names for science fiction and fantasy characters

nt study, names in science fiction and fantasy stories were analysed to examine a possible
hip between word formation pattern and group of referents (Elsen 2008). First, all names from
were collected and analysed according to morphological structure and reference. All books were
written in German.
of names turned out to be transparent and to be formed according to morphological rules, e.g.
ast /Red Palace or Schwarzes Portal/ Black Portal. Others showed a mix of unknown and known
s such as Terkonit, Ebulit, Molvedin (metals) or Amnesin, Energon, Erosan, Euphorit, Somnalin,
drugs). Examples like these correspond to trade names from chemistry in using pseudo-morphs
an, -on, -it which sound scientific but do not carry a consistent meaning. The most interesting
as the third group: artificially constructed words. These names, however, were obviously not
trarily. For example, small and harmless characters were named Krila, a gnome, Kelwitt, an
t, innocent, dolphin-like creature, Brin, a young, good-natured prince, Elim, a childlike prince,
mall dwarf. The names for dangerous and evil beings like monsters, demons and orks showed
 See all
els and › See especially
consonants, all › Seeand
velar all › uvular fricatives, often closed syllables and consonant
cf. 4Ch’tuon, DownloadAnother
Rrul´ghargop or An-Rukhbar. citation Share
group Download full-text PDF
Citations Tairach, Azrathoth, 1 Chrekt-Orn,
68 References Figures
d positive, magnificent, potent and good-natured characters such as magicians, scholars or elf

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494 H. Elsen

knights. Their names preferably consisted of more than two syllables, most of them open, most wi
vowel a¹ and no schwa. Only the last syllable very often is closed, there are few consonant cluste
Kalakaman, Rakorium Muntagonus or Athanasios.
Female names usually end with a, cf. Udora, Karyla, Chaka, Vella, Lalapeja, some with i, cf
Charilan-Chi (queen of cat-people). Final schwa or final consonants are rare. Lastly, extremely
creatures show names which deviate from the typical German syllable structure, two syllables, th
one is stressed, the second one unstressed with schwa, and many consonant clusters such as str
-tz, -mpf, cf. Pflaume ‘plum’, Straße ‘street’, Puppe ‘doll’, Suppe ‘soup’, laufen ‘to run’. One represen
of an intelligent, highly developed, not humanoid species is named Gijül. So called Idones are Fänu
and Kurla. The names of some of the cat-people are Ciran, Croi or Ciaril. Dex, Ill, Fei, Wast, Milzenisda
Sophoheilip, Themaktima, Deshdriag, Jil’man’mar’ter or Ceox are further names for exotic creatures
As names for unknown characters are not built arbitrarily we might argue that they deliver inform
via sound structure. The sound /i/ is used for small, harmless referents. Dark vowels and back fric
resemble threatening growls, roars and snarls and trigger negative associations. They will in
evil, foreign species more appropriately than forms with /i/ or /m/. But it is not only single sound
particular groups and patterns which recur repeatedly in relation to certain kinds of protagonis
denote powerful, magnificent and positive characters a Latin-Greek-like sound shape is used with
a-sounds and open syllables because we associate “reliability, efficiency, authority, importance
further positive characteristics. For exotic creatures the names deviate from the average sound Ge
pattern as much as possible. To examine whether hearers/readers make use of sound symbolic cue
whether they connect names with the intended referents, an experiment was designed, inspired by
(1973) (cf. Elsen 2008).

4 Method
Data analysis was based on names from science fiction and fantasy books originally written in Ge
Participants were 106 native speakers of German, 93 students, aged between 20 and 27 years, a
employees in an engineering office, aged between 32 and 52 years. They were asked to judge six n
as more or less fitting for a referent ranging from very (1) to not at all (7). All names were taken fro
books. Most of the names were artificial names except for, e.g. Gina, Nana, Mark, Nord. Question
names were presented as a questionnaire. In a final section participants were given the opportun
comment.
The questions were:
How appropriate is the name for a
1 - beautiful young woman? (Klipp, Alani, Olda, Valeron Veit, Sartassa, Gorx).
2 - ferocious, ugly, malignant monster? (Gina, Ch’tuon, Eugalp, Tik, Chrekt-Orn, Ghuzdan).
3 - small gnome with a high-pitched voice? (Cromag, Raul Madsen, Krillri, Nana, Cir, Gurlo).
4 - exotic, kind creature with three legs (N’ehetu, Mark Nord, Cara, Gnoorat, Mu’ati, Cir).
5 - good-natured, powerful magician? (Rrul’ghargop, Nana, Galdalyn, Cuul, Oderich Finck, Salami
 See all ›See all › See all ›
5 Results
4 Citations
68 References 1 Figures
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The following tables² list the mean ratings.

1 We are aware of the fact that letters represent sounds. <a> in German is pronounced /a, a/, <i> is pronounced /i, I/, <
/, <u>: /u, /, stressed <e>: /e, /, unstressed <e> : schwa (//).
2 Tables from Elsen (2008: 100-102).

Unauthenticated
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The Two Meanings of Sound Symbolism 495

ng woman

rating

.

.

t .

.

.

.

nster

rating

.

.

.

.

.

.

ome

rating

.

.

.

.
 See all.
› See all › See all ›
Download citation Share Download full-text PDF
n 4 Citations
. 68 References 1 Figures

tic creature

rating

.

.

.

.

.

.

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496 H. Elsen

Table 5: powerful magician

example rating

Galdalyn .

Salamir .

Cuul .

Oderich Finck .

Rrul’ghargop .

Nana .

The first finding is that all best examples were the names the authors of the stories had chosen f
depicted or similar characters: Alani, Sartassa, Chrekt-Orn, Ghuzdan, Eugalp, Ch‘tuon, Krillri, Cir, N’
Mu’ati, Galdalyn, Salamir, ratings between 1.52 and 2.93. Participants rated correct names as best
without background information and context.
The second finding is that ratings were not gradual. There’s a sudden rise between the ratings
two correct names and the rest in table 1, 3 and 5, and between the four correct names and the rest in
2. Klipp, Gorx, Tik, Gina, Raul Madsen, Mark Nord and Nana didn’t fit at all, ratings between 5.27 and
Results in table 4 are not as obvious. The only definite difference is between the last name, Mark Nor
the rest, probably because it sounds like an average human being and thus not exotic.
The names are not equally well suited for the referents. As they do not show morphological inform
the ranking must be based on phonetic information, represented and accompanied by orthographic
cf. N’ehetu. Taken together, the judgements of the participants correlated with the authors’ inte
although they had no textual information. Accordingly, they made use of the sound structure of the w
 See all › See all › See all ›
6 Discussion
4 Citations
68 References 1 Figures
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Subsequent to the experiment participants were asked to comment on their decisions to get to know
about the reasons why some names are better than others. Participants rated /a/ to be positive and fri
thus fitting well with young women who are prototypically positive characters, antagonists are u
male. Light vowels and /a/, especially as a last sound, are very important for female names, wherea
consonants indicate males. Back consonants are perfect for malicious monsters because they are str
suggestive of the sounds these creatures are supposed to produce. Accordingly, Gina is unsuitable be
of the bright and beautiful connotations, whereas Tik has a cheerful and harmless effect. Eugalp on
average marks because it does not sound really negative. The monsters in the texts were described as
or less vicious. For example, the demon Eugalp is only moderately evil.
Single syllables sound harsh (and thus not female). Names with consonant clusters and few v
were again thought to be harsh. High vowels were associated with small creatures and high-pitched v
The exotic beings in the experiment were presented as amiable and friendly in the stories. The be
names for exotic, good-natured creatures were N’ehetu and Mu’ati with initial nasals and the apost
as a graphic signal for foreignness. They lack back consonants. Proper names consisting of two fa
sounding parts such as Raul Madsen or Mark Nord are typical for human beings and thus not suitab
non-human creatures.
Good-natured, powerful magicians are preferably named Galdalyn and Salamir. They lack
consonants, the syllable structure is reminiscent of Latin and Greek. These languages contribute tech
terms, which are associated with science, effectiveness and power, at least for speakers of German.

3 apart from common knowledge about proper names.

4 A syllable-final <r> is vocalized in German, especially when unstressed.

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The Two Meanings of Sound Symbolism 497

ns are transferred to the names and the characters. In this case, sounds express meaning, but it is
meaning which reflects phonotactic knowledge of the language system.
ts show that participants make use of sound structure to interpret characteristic features of
nts. However, not all of this information can be called natural or motivated. Size-symbolism
mes for small creatures and velars and uvulars in the names for malicious monsters are based
ral and/or iconic relationship between sound and referent. In contrast, final /a/ as opposed
onant and Latin-Greek syllable structures can only be taken as acquired information about the
system. Final a is used in many languages to mark female names besides i, in contrast to final
ts for males (Lieberson & Mikelson 1995; Hough 2000; Lieberson & Bell 1992; Whissell 2001a, b;
003; Aksholakova 2014; Rüdebusch & Ewels 2016). This is part of a gestalt which is felt to be fitting
s, based on culture, custom and fashion. There’s probably nothing natural or iconic in final a for
he same is true for phonesthemes such as gl- for glimmer, glitter or fl- for flee, fly, flow, flurry. They
e restricted to a language or a language family. Furthermore - is there anything glittering in gl-
sidering words like gloat, gloom or glove? Phonesthemes are said to exist in most languages, the
s whether they have a mere statistical background or not (e.g., Joseph 1994; Hutchins 1998; Abelin
; Magnus 2001; Bergen 2004; Drellishak 2006; Ivanova 2006) or if the ranges of interpretations
o phonic variation or ambiguity, depending on neighbouring sounds or the whole lexeme (Feist
a indicate that both aspects, natural/iconic and habitual information, interact. Both Galdalyn
hargop are powerful beings, the first one good-natured, the second one evil and dangerous, in his
ind an accumulation of back phonemes. Another interrelation may be that not all sound symbolic
 qual.SeeFor
all ›example,
Seea all
small,
› good-natured
See all › creature living in swamps is called Gwrgi - i indicating
seems to be stronger
4 Citations than the effects
68 References of the back consonants. Of course, Download
1 Figures this studycitation
can onlyShare
offer Download full-text PDF
it may serve as an impulse for further studies with speakers other than German and with a more
set of data.
universalism, natural correlations between sound and meaning should show in many, if not all,
s. Usually, universal/natural as well as language-individual phenomena are equally entitled to
n sound symbolism. When investigating sound symbolism we should be aware of the two aspects
der both when looking for the universal aspects of sound symbolic words. Finally, a last remark
g the type of data might be permitted. One of the questions research tries to answer is whether
mbolism is grammatical or “a fixed part of fixed lexical entries” (Feist 2013: 113). It may well be that
xical systems are not suited for demonstrating the existence of sound symbolism. Though sound
words may be easy to acquire and to manage, social and technical development results in more
concepts. More concepts require more words. Growing vocabularies need more contrasts between
ms, otherwise, precise communication is endangered due to too many homonyms, ambiguities and
standings. Large vocabularies depend on arbitrariness. Arbitrariness is necessary. Consequently,
our present lexical systems constitute a valid basis when looking for sound symbolism. Though we
aces everywhere, experiments with artificial words present a more reliable basis to study sound
effects.
e research will have to disentangle results for natural and artificial data as well as natural/
purely habitual effects to filter out prototypical sound symbolism such as /i/ for small referents.
the best candidates for universals. As all four factors interact, this is probably the reason why
nsive results are still missing.

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eferences (68)
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4 Citations 68 References 1 Figures
herent Size Semantics (Sound Symbolism) Do Not Account for Above-Chance Retrieval Performance Instead of
n language, we created foreign- sounding pseudowords to avoid any influence of previous language experiences
AR Methods). Neverthe- less, the sounds of pseudowords may be associated with a partic- ular meaning [45], a
wn as sound symbolism [46] . For example, most people will think that ''galnoog'' refers to a larger object than
ugh neither has been seman- tically bound to a real object. ...
m,'' for instance, may sound like an object smaller than a shoebox, while ''galnoog'' may sound like an object
box. We refer to this phenomenon as ''inherent size semantics''; in Linguistics it is an example of sound symbolism
alf of the participants to give impartial size ratings for those pseudowords that were played during sleep to the
ipants, and vice versa. ...

Learning during Sleep Is Bound to Slow-Wave Peaks

vailable
OL
Simon Ruch · Roland Wiest · Katharina Henke

us instance of this would be when an author chooses a name for a character. They may-consciously or
ect a name that is congruent with the character's personality, in order to highlight that personality for the audience
Kawa- hara, Noto, & Kumagai, 2018;Smith, 2006). Future research might examine the extent to which the
rved here are present in works of fiction, as well as the impact of congruent/incongruent names on the reader's
fiction. ...

t all? Investigating phoneme-personality sound symbolism in first names

vailable
YCHOL GEN
risten Deschamps · Joshua Bourdage · Penny Pexman

d Symbolism With Trans-Disciplinary Perspective And Multi-Lingual Texts

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s literature: A typology of occasionalisms

vailable

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